


When Life Give Rocks

by ChemDeaf



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Mer AU, Tiso gets stuck and gets unexpected help, minor description of injury or mention of injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 14:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChemDeaf/pseuds/ChemDeaf
Summary: Tiso was hunting for some fish a bit further off from his usual hunting area when a section of rocks started to fall on top of him. Stuck, he needed some help, but who would come? (Mer AU, Tiso is a moray eel and God Tamer is a barracuda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	When Life Give Rocks

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic to be posted here! I like Hollow Knight and got inspired when I joined a discord sever for the game.  
> Enjoy! More notes at the bottom.

Tiso groaned from the pain and dizziness as he attempted to wake up. Memories were fuzzy as he tried to piece together what had happened. His arms felt sore but otherwise unharmed. His head seemed to suffer some kind of hit or it could have been the dizziness talking. He was not sure.

Blinking his eyes to get rid of the blurriness, he shifted his torso. There seemed to be a limited space to move but the further down his body the more trapped it got. A sharp pain went up when he tried to move his tail. He screamed from the sudden sharp pain and immediately clasped a hand over his mouth. Memories came rushing back.

He was hunting some fish to eat when the structure of the cliff crumbled on top of him. He barely managed to swim out of the way only to get stuck at the edge of the rocks. He slowly turned himself to see behind him the best he could. There was a good deal of rocks up out of his sights. He was only fortunate that his torso was not completely crushed by the rocks, stuck to a crevice near the bottom. His tail was not as fortunate.

He had no idea how to get out.

It didn't stop him from at least attempting to move the rocks. His arms protested the effort and the rocks refused to budge. Sighing and grumbling in defeat, he surveyed the area in front of him. He could see a deep dark section off to the left which bothered him. He felt like he should know what that place was, but nothing comes to mind. He ignored it and looked about. All he knew was that his recent group of mers' home was further away, but he attempted to shout for their attention.

With no success, he instead waited for fish to swim by to eat and hope a mer would come soon. He hoped Ghost would swim by. The young mer took a liking to him as soon as they met him much to his bafflement. Ghost was an odd mer with their almost pale face with a dark body. He never seen a betta mer that dark like Ghost. He was also convinced Ghost was the only reason he was still around. He doubted anyone else liked him that much.

He smiled as he recalled Ghost visiting his hole, often with stuff to show or to tackle him. As far as he recalled, only Ghost hugged him voluntarily. In turn, he liked tickling and playing with them. He often told them scary stuff just to see their reaction.

He chuckled upon remembering seeing Hornet's angry face and her needle pointing at him as a threat. She was quite protective of Ghost. Needling her was his favorite past time along with flirting. He didn't mind getting rejected venomously, but he tried to not cross some kind of line. He had no intention of getting skewered.

In a weird way, it was almost familiar with Hornet. Before this group, he was in a few others. It always ended badly, and he would be driven off by several angry mers. They made sure he was never near their territory after that. Thus, he struck out on his own, needing no one. So, it surprised him that Hornet put up so much from him. Ghost might have something to do with it.

The others like Quirrel, Iselda, and Cornifer were not as familiar. Quirrel was very intelligent and yet, a little weird. There was no enjoyable banter like with Hornet with him. Iselda was like a mom he never had. And Cornifer, Iselda's husband, comes and goes as he pleased, bringing various news and sightings he came across.

Tiso sighed upon recalling Iselda, remembering how she cared for him during the barbed wire incident. He was getting unlucky recently with getting hurt. First was the random anchor that hit him on the head then trapped his tail. He only got away when the anchor started moving, and he held onto a rock until it got off his tail to swim away. With the tail slightly damaged, he swam a little worse than before. It was how he somehow got tangled up in that trashed net. His slippery skin and sharp teeth helped him out of that one.

The barbed wire was the only time he recalled having medical attention when he came back. He thought they did not care that he was hurt considering their lack of reaction to his bent tail and later rope burns. Ghost however liked his grand story of his escape despite's Hornet's efforts to contrary. He often saw Ghost while confined to Iselda's place to heal. He insisted that he was fine, but she wanted to be sure that he wasn't getting some fever or illness. He was impressed by her dedication and stayed to avoid upsetting her.

He groaned when pain interrupted his daydreaming. There was something going on at his tail, but he couldn't see anything back there. He hoped what he was feeling was just sharp rocks not teeth slowly eating away at his tail. Risking further injury, he attempted to flex his tail to shoo away anything that might _think_ of eating. He did his best to ignore the additional pain.

If Ghost came by, they would certainly get help. That betta mer is persuasive when they wanted to be. What could they bring? Tiso considered the options and felt that he would be seeing Hornet to come and help. She would laugh at his predicament.

"Stop laughing!" he shouted at his imaginary Hornet. "I'd like to see you trapped under these rocks and see how well **you** fare!" He grinned upon picturing trapped Hornet, however, she in his imagination made short works of disposing of the rocks with her needle and strength. "Damnit. I could get out too, ya know?"

Annoyed with Hornet's abilities, he shooed away the thoughts and considered other options. He didn't get very far when a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. "I thought I heard something."

"GAH!" Tiso turned to the voice and stared at God Tamer, grinning right at him.

"Are you talking to yourself, little fool? You look like a moron."

"Wha- oh, shut up, God Tamer. I'll get out soon enough."

God Tamer laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure. Right in the hands of the coliseum's fodder list. You're making quite enough racket I'm surprised they hadn't gotten you yet."

"Hey, I wasn't _that_ loud!" Tiso tried to ignore the fear that the coliseum was nearby. If they found him, he was very doomed.

"Yeah, sure whatever. What are you doing all the way out here? Unless you like being my little snack?"

"Please, I was simply hunting until this rock decided to fall on me. You have nothing to do with this." He crossed his arms as he glared off to the side.

"Aww, here I thought you missed me."

Tiso tried not to flinch when she suddenly swam much closer.

"You're not going to try and say dumb stuff now are you?"

"Ehh, not really feeling it right now," Tiso said as he tried to push God Tamer away. He didn't like the look on her face. Her sharp teeth was much too close. "I know how to handle a rejection." He quickly moved his arm out of her mouth's reach when she tried to bite him. "And I'm not a snack, go find something else!"

"Why? You're trapped and a delicious helpless prey."

"I am not! Look-" He looked about frantically trying to get the hungry mer to not eat him. The rocks gave him an idea. "I bet you can't move these rocks!"

That stopped God Tamer inches from him. "...what?"

He was glad that her hungry manic grin was dropped. "I said, I bet you can't move these rocks," he repeated, daring her to take up the challenge as he faced her.

"Ha! Really? Child's play, little fool."

Tiso gave a little sigh of relief when she swam up to start moving the rocks. Crisis was averted... for now. He doubted that he could swim faster than her once he's freed. Maybe he could knock her out somehow?

His train of thought was interrupted by a rock slamming right in front of him. "Hey! Watch where you're throwing them!" He growled at the sudden laughter from above. Once he got a good look around, he felt nervous. The rocks that was above him was dropped all around him, something close to a cage. He decided to ignore that he was getting a bit boxed in.

"And done!"

He looked around. "Aren't you forgetting a rock?" He glanced over to God Tamer who just swam in front of him with a smug look.

"Nope."

"Really, you don't see one still on my tail?"

"That's so you don't go running off on me. I saw the scars. Where did you get it?"

"Eh? Uh, various injuries. Barbed wires got wrapped around me at one point."

"Barbed wires? Impressive. Too bad there isn't any left on the tail."

"They wouldn't let me keep it. It's better that way." He could see the various accessories on God Tamer's body like the fish hooks. It did make her look more dangerous. "I thought you were hungry?"

"Oh, I am. There's some fish near your tail that made a nice pre-snack."

"Why are they near my-?"

"To eat it. Whatever it looked like before, it's gone now."

Tiso did not want to believe her and quickly swam around the rock the best he could to see his tail. "My tail!" He was not happy seeing a good chunk of it missing.

"Don't worry about it, little fool-"

"Stop," Tiso snapped as he turned to God Tamer who had lazily swam closer. "It's Tiso not little fool. I don't call you Champion Fool, ya know."

"Fool Champion, not the other way around." She paused when she saw Tiso starting to grab the rock on his tail. "...what are you doing?"

Tiso struggled as he attempted to move the rock, eventually started to lift it. "Heh, guess I can move rocks as well." He gave a cheeky grin at God Tamer's direction and threw the rock at her. While she was stunned by a rock flying at her, he made his escape over the fallen rocks and swam as quickly as he could out.

He did not see that the rock had fallen short in front of God Tamer nor her reaction to having a rock thrown at her. She started to chuckle, amazed and amused that he tried throwing the rock at her before laughing out loud. He heard her laugh and tried to swim faster.

She swam up to see Tiso disappearing out of sight. "Tiso huh, I should remember that."

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the Mer AU. It was inspired by https://dooblebugs.tumblr.com/ which you can go check it out!


End file.
